The author provides a concise and comprehensive history of capitalism within a global perspective from its medieval origins to the 2008 financial crisis and beyond. The author offers an account of capitalism that weighs its great achievements against its great costs, crises, and failures. The book puts the rise of capitalist economies in social, political, and cultural context, and shows how their current problems and foreseeable future are connected to a long history. The book describes how capitalist expansion was connected to colonialism; how industrialism brought unprecedented innovation, growth, and prosperity but also increasing inequality; and how managerialism, financialization, and globalization later changed the face of capitalism. The book also addresses the idea of capitalism in the work of thinkers such as Marx, Weber, and Schumpeter, and chronicles how criticism of capitalism is as old as capitalism itself, fed by its persistent contradictions and recurrent emergencies.--.

"First published in Germany under 'Geschichte des Kapitalismus, ' by Jürgen Kocka, ©2014"--Title page verso.

What does capitalism mean? -- Merchant capitalism -- Expansion -- The capitalist era -- Analysis and critique. 1. What does capitalism mean? The emergence of a controversial concept ; Three classics: Marx, Weber, and Schumpeter ; Other voices and a working definition -- 2. Merchant capitalism. China and Arabia ; Europe: dynamic latecomer ; Interim findings around 1500 -- 3. Expansion. Business and violence: colonialism and world trade ; Joint-stock company and finance capitalism ; Plantation economy and slavery ; Agrarian capitalism, mining, and proto-industrialization ; Capitalism, culture, and enlightenment: Adam Smith in context -- 4. The capitalist era. The contours of industrialization and globalization since 1800 ; From ownership to managerial capitalism ; Financialization ; Work in capitalism ; Market and state -- 5. Analysis and critique.